The Clean Air Act requires the EPA to revisit its National Ambient Air Quality Standards every five years, taking into account the latest science without considering the associated costs. The Supreme Court (ATA v. Browner, 2000) has found that this statutory mandate does not violate the nondelegation doctrine. Economists of all political persuasions have criticized this decision process. Our experts examine prospects for reform – by Congress, the Executive, the courts, or by the states. Since the states bear ultimate responsibility for attainment, they may turn out to be the main protagonists in the inevitable debate about NAAQS reform.

Featuring:

Prof. Jonathan H. Adler, Johan Verheij Memorial Professor of Law, Case Western Reserve University School of Law

Brian Mannix, President, Buckland Mill Associates

Daniel R. Simmons, Director of Regulatory and State Affairs, Institute for Energy Research

Moderator: Dean Reuter, Vice President and Director of Practice Groups, The Federalist Society

For the better part of a decade, courts have confronted several global warming nuisance suits that seek to persuade judges and juries to play a role in assigning responsibility and remedies for alleged harms flowing from climate change. From New York to California, these creative lawsuits have uniformly been rebuffed by trial courts, but they have spawned protracted litigation up and down the federal judiciary over the proper role of courts in setting environmental standards.﻿.. [Read more!]

By its Resolution A/RES/64/236 of December 24, 2009, the United Nations General Assembly blessed preparations for the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 2012. The Resolution was titled “Implementation of Agenda 21, the Programme for the Further Implementation of Agenda 21 and the outcomes of the [2002 Johannesburg] World Summit on Sustainable Development.”﻿ [Read more!]

In May 2010, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a rule setting standards for motor vehicle greenhouse gas emissions. By creating these standards, EPA is implicitly regulating fuel economy. Because the rule also obligates EPA to regulate greenhouse gases from stationary sources, the agency is now determining national policy on climate change. EPA has asserted that it is simply implementing the Clean Air Act. But the Clean Air Act was neither designed nor intended to regulate greenhouse gases, and it provides no authority to regulate fuel economy... [Read more!]

In many segments of the environmental community, the notion of touching the ESA is akin to skinning baby harp seals alive. So it is with some boldness that Jonathan Adler, a Professor of Law and Director of the Center for Business Law and Regulation at Case Western Reserve University School of Law, has pulled together a collection of essays centered around proposals to reform the ESA. [Read more!]